This invention relates to ski bindings and, more particularly, to ski bindings of the type having a toe release unit, a heel retainer unit and a sole plate provided with means for easy attachment to and ready release from a ski boot.
Of the wide variety of ski bindings available, many skiers prefer so called "sole plate" bindings of the type having a toe release unit, usually spring-biased, a heel retainer unit, and a sole plate which is received between the toe and heel units in a releasable fashion. The sole plate will typically include means whereby the ski boot of the skier is easily and readily attached to or removed from the boot of the skier.
Such bindings possess superior qualities in a variety of respects, such as superior, positive release in a fall, particularly forward falls and in terms of being easily adjustable without the need of expert assistance at virtually any location with no tools whatsoever, or, at the very most, a screwdriver, allowing ready change for changing ski conditions.
One minor aggravation, however, attends their use. In reentering the binding after a release, the skier has either had to release the heel lever to remove the sole plate from the ski boot and by hand dispose the sole plate in proper position within the toe and heel unit and then step on the sole plate and fasten the same to his boot, or, in the alternative, leave the sole plate on his boot, insert the rear of the sole plate into the heel unit and then exert forward and downward pressure to capture the toe of the sole plate in the toe unit.
In the case of the former method, the manual manipulation of the sole plate to dispose the same between the heel and toe units is awkward and when securing the sole plate to the boot, the entire ski must be manually properly oriented by reason of the fact that the sole plate is already attached thereto. In the case of the latter method, the motions required are quite unnatural, in part due to the rigidity of the ski boots, as those skilled in the art will readily recognize that it is far easier to enter a ski binding by locating the toe in the binding first and thereafter completing the entry by moving the heel into the proper location than to enter with the heel first and toe last.